Some questions for Pat:

1. Slackware is reported to be the oldest surviving Linux distribution, to what does he attribute this distribution's longevity?
2. Which technique or innovation commonly found in other distributions would PatV attribute to Slackware as its original developer.
3. What does PatV think of the SlackBook and the overall quality of documentation in general?
4. Are there any technical innovations that PatV is working on?
5. What are his opinions on Arch Linux, Gentoo, and Debian?
6. Will we ever see GNOME back on Slackware?
7. When will we see PAM on Slackware?
8. What is Plan B for Slackware?
9. What are his thoughts on the average Slackware user? Who is the distribution targeting?
10. Which Desktop Environment does he prefer? What are his opinions on GNOME, DE and WM found on Slackware (KDE, XFCE, etc.)?
11. Does he read or answer e-mails from users?
12. What does PatV think on
a. GRUB2
b. System D
c. Automatic dependency checking on Package Managers
13. If he had enough resources, what would PatV change or update on Slackware.
14. If he were to inherit Microsoft tomorrow morning, what would he tell his management team on his first meeting with them?
15. If he were to inherit the Free Software Foundation tomorrow morning, what would he tell his management team on his first meeting with them?
16. What are his opinions on Linus Torvalds and his latest rant on openSUSE?
17. What are his opinions on SOPA, PIPA, ACTA and general cryptography legislation? Do they stifle innovation?

Another question:

Pat, which superhero movie are you looking forward to more this summer: The Avengers, The Amazing Spider Man, or Dark Knight Rises? How about your other family members?

(And yes, this is a serious suggestion. There should be some questions like this, IMHO).

question:
Can you describe your typical work day ?

Do you prefer blonde or brunette?

- What do you think of the current trends in desktop environments (Unity, Gnome 3, KDE 4)?
- Years ago you have chosen KDE for Slackware; are you happy with the direction (semantic desktop) it has taken?

Some questions for Pat V.
1. Do you (or anyone of current Slackware team) see any GNU/Linux system software changes coming in future that my affect Slackware's development (either positively or negatively)?

2. Can you give us some behind-the-scenes report of what hardware you use for testing/development/day-to-day work?

Thank you,

Here's a couple:

1. Coming up on 20 years, ever think Slackware would last this long ?

2. Patches you provide are a great service! Alongside CD/DVD subscriptions, ever consider a service similar to the Donate Button, but a person can signup to have an an automatic monthly donation charged to their credit card ?

John

Member response
 

Hi,

My query is related to how PV & team will handle 'UEFI/EFI' in the future with Slackware? Potential changes in the choice of bootloader? If so which one? Elilo?

Will uefi.txt from Kernel Doc be used as a template for the huge.s kernel? I am not worried about 'secure boot' since there will be other hardware choices. Most OEM will provide the means for a user to provide keys for alternate installs.

Two part related questions;
Potential multiple user selection for other/additional filesystem choices in setup for filesystems? How will you handle UEFI & GPT(GUID partition table) with Slackware for a common user?

My understanding is that syslinux at this point in time does not support UEFI/EFI, how will you work around this?

Will you create a LiveCD/DVD Slackware or depend/leave it to derivatives?

Other LQ members have suggested the use of a wiki to support Slackware. How and where would you implement a wiki? You could consider this as an alternative to the Slackware.com site? Several LQ members have offered their support! I cannot speak for jeremy but I am sure somewhere could be found for a wiki. :)

Help in kind here at LQ would take some of the load off you for the Slackware.com site if you decide to keep it. Potential use of LQ members to aid when necessary?

Dang! Beat me to it. I was going to ask that exact question.

Does Pat have any political (in the broadest) reasons for Slackware, or is it mainly pragmatic?
Do the politics of things like DRM come up, or does the aim to make the Distro work supersede those kinds of politics?

question:
Some rumors say AlienBob is working on a new ARM port of Slackware for recent ARM devices like RaspberryPi or Tegra 2.... What do you think about this devices? Will we see new official Slackware ARM tree in future?

I will be curious to know what hardware he is running
slackware on and what is his desktop environment of choice

I read in the local Fargo paper that a retired MSU comp sci professor, Benjamin Lin, was killed in a hit and run accident. Was he the professor who asked you to find a way for the students to find run LISP assignments their own computers?
http://obit.funeralnet.com/obitdispl...simanocolonial

What is happening with the slackware-security mailing list and Slackware security advisories? It is a long time since I've received an email from the mailing list and I notice Slackware security updates haven't been reported on LWN for some time. I know there are other ways to be aware of security updates, but I think the mailing list is still useful.

Geoff.

1. Where do you see Slackware 5 years from now?

2. Is there any way the community can pay you back for all the work you do in providing Slackware?

3. After nearly 20 years do you still have the same enthusiasm for providing Slackware that you had when you started? How has it changed?

4. Looking back at when you started Slackware, what about the modern day revolution of computer technology has amazed you the most?

5. How important are your team of contributors to the modern production of Slackware?

6. We've recently heard rumors about you might be stepping away from slackware or that slackware is under some financial pressure. Is there any truth to these rumors -- would you like to squash any of them now?

7. Slackware has been very stable with respect to its design philosophy over many years. Is there some feature you're often tempted to change?

8. Where do you go when you need to "get away" from Slackware?

9. How important a role has your family played in the development of Slackware?

10. If Planet X exists, what would you like to hear WOTAN-1 say when Bob descends into Glory and Terror?